Phase change memory with ovonic threshold switch

ABSTRACT

A phase change memory includes a memory element and a selection element. The memory element is embedded in a dielectric and includes a resistive element having at least one sublithographic dimension and a storage region in contact with the resistive element. The selection element includes a chalcogenic material embedded in a dielectric. The chalcogenic material and the storage region are part of a stack having a common etched edge.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/943,409, filed Sep. 17, 2004.

BACKGROUND

The present invention relates to a phase change memory.

Phase change memories use a class of materials that have the property of switching between two phases having distinct electrical characteristics, associated to two different crystallographic structures of the material, and precisely an amorphous, disordered phase and a crystalline or polycrystalline, ordered phase. The two phases are hence associated to resistivities of considerably different values.

Currently, the alloys of elements of group VI of the periodic table, such as Te or Se, referred to as chalcogenides or chalcogenic materials, can be used advantageously in phase change memory cells. The currently most promising chalcogenide is formed from an alloy of Ge, Sb and Te (Ge₂Sb₂Te₅).

In the chalcogenides, the resistivity may vary by two or more orders of magnitude when the material passes from the amorphous (more resistive) phase to the crystalline (more conductive) phase, and vice versa.

Phase change can be obtained by locally increasing the temperature. Below 150° C., both the phases are relatively stable, with an amorphous bit tending to gradually crystallize over a period of years if held at 150° C. Starting from an amorphous state, and raising the temperature above 200° C., where there is a rapid nucleation of the crystallites and, if the material is kept at the crystallization temperature for a sufficiently long time, it undergoes a phase change and becomes crystalline. Preferably, the material is cooled off slowly to better assure the crystalline state. To bring the chalcogenide back to the amorphous state it is necessary to raise the temperature above the melting temperature (approximately 600° C.) and then rapidly cool off the chalcogenide.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a current-voltage curve of one embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 3-10 are cross-sections through a semiconductor device according to a first embodiment of the invention, in subsequent manufacturing steps, taken along line 10-10 of FIG. 12;

FIG. 11 is a cross-section through the device of FIG. 11, taken along line 11-11 of FIG. 12;

FIG. 12 is a plan view of the device of FIGS. 10 and 11;

FIGS. 13-18 are cross-sections through a second embodiment of the invention, in subsequent manufacturing steps, taken generally along plane 18-18 of FIG. 12;

FIG. 19 is a cross-section of the device of FIG. 18, taken generally along plane 19-19 of FIG. 20;

FIG. 20 is a plan view of the device of FIGS. 18 and 19;

FIG. 21 is a cross-section taken along line 21-21 of FIG. 22; and

FIG. 22 is a top view of a memory device according to a third embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In a phase change memory including chalcogenic elements as storage elements, memory cells are arranged in rows and columns to form an array 1, as shown in FIG. 1. The memory array 1 of FIG. 1 comprises a plurality of memory cells 2, each including a phase change memory element 3 and a selection element 4. The memory cells 2 are interposed at cross-points of rows 6 (also called word lines) and columns 5 (also called bit lines).

In each memory cell 2, the memory element 3 has a first terminal connected to a word line 5 and a second terminal connected to a first terminal of a selection element 4. The selection element 4 has a second terminal connected to a bit line 6. In another solution, the memory element 3 and the selection element 4 of each cell 2 may be exchanged in position.

A binary memory may be formed by an array of cells 2 including a selection element 4 that may be called “ovonic threshold switch” (also referred to as an OTS hereinafter), connected in series with a memory element 3 that may be called “ovonic memory switch” (OMS). The OTS and the OMS may be formed adjacent to each other on an insulating substrate and may be connected to each other through a conducting strip. Each cell is coupled between a row and a column of a memory array.

The OMS may be formed by a chalcogenic semiconductor material having two distinct metastable phases (crystalline and amorphous) associated to different resistivities. The OTS may be built with a chalcogenic semiconductor material having one single phase (generally amorphous, but sometimes crystalline) with two distinct regions of operation associated to different resistivities. The OTS may have a higher resistance than the OMS. When a memory cell is to be read, a voltage drop is applied to the cell that is insufficient to trigger the OMS when the latter is in its higher resistance condition (associated with a digital “0” state). That same voltage drop may be sufficient to drive the OTS and OMS into its low resistance condition when the OMS is already in its low resistance condition (associated with a digital “1” state).

The OTS may have the typical characteristic shown in FIG. 2. That OTS has a high resistance for voltages below a threshold value Vth. When the applied voltage exceeds the threshold value Vth, the OTS begins to conduct at a substantial constant, low voltage and presents a low impedance. When the current through the OTS falls below a holding current I_(H), the OTS goes back to his high-impedance condition. This behavior may be symmetrical and may occur also for negative voltages and currents.

A phase change memory device comprises a chalcogenic material and a resistive electrode, also called a heater. In fact, from an electrical point of view, the crystallization temperature and the melting temperature are obtained by causing an electric current to flow through the chalcogenic material and its resistive electrode in contact or close proximity with the chalcogenic material. The chalcogenic material is heated by Joule effect in the resistive electrode and current/voltage and the Joule effect in the chalcogenic material.

In particular, a voltage/current pulse of a suitable length (corresponding to the crystallization time) and amplitude (corresponding to the crystallization temperature) crystallizes the chalcogenic material. The chalcogenic material changes state, switching to a lower resistivity in the crystalline state (also called the set state).

Vice versa, a shorter voltage/current pulse (e.g., 20 nanoseconds) of suitable amplitude (corresponding to the melting temperature) melts the chalcogenic material, cooling it down rapidly and then quenching it in the amorphous phase.

Referring to FIG. 3, a wafer 10 includes a substrate 11 of semiconductor material (e.g. silicon). The wafer 10 may include an insulating layer 12. Row lines 13 are formed on top of the insulating layer 12, insulated from each other by a first dielectric layer 14. The row lines (corresponding to the word lines 6 of FIG. 1) may be formed, via a damascene process, by forming the first dielectric layer 14 and then removing the dielectric material where the row lines 13 are to be formed. The resulting trenches are filled with copper. Any excess copper is then removed from the surface of the wafer 10 by chemical mechanical polishing (CMP), as shown in FIG. 4.

An encapsulating structure may be formed by depositing, in sequence, a first nitride layer 18 and a first oxide layer 19 (FIG. 4) and then selectively removing the first oxide layer 19 and the first nitride layer 18 down to the surface of the first dielectric layer 14 (FIG. 5). Thus, in FIG. 5, for each row line 13, an opening 20 is formed which extends at least partially on top of the row line 13. In particular, at least one vertical surface 20 a of each opening 20 extends above a respective row line 13. Each opening 20 may extend along the whole respective row line 13 or along only a part thereof, in which case a plurality of openings 20 are aligned to each other along each row line 13. The openings 20 may have a substantially parallelepipedal shape.

Then, a spacer layer, e.g. of silicon nitride, is deposited and etched back. Thus, the horizontal portions of the spacer layer are removed, and only vertical portions thereof, indicated at 21 and extending along the vertical surfaces of the opening 20, are left. These vertical portions 21 join the first nitride layer 18 laterally to the openings 20 and form, with the first nitride layer 18, a protective region indicated by 22. Thus, the structure of FIG. 5 is obtained, wherein the protective region 22 together with the first oxide layer 19 form an encapsulating structure.

Thereafter, referring to FIG. 6, a heater layer 23 is deposited and stabilized. For example, TiSiN may be used, which conformally covers the bottom and the sides of the openings 20. Subsequently, a sheath layer 24, e.g. of silicon nitride, and a second oxide layer 25 are deposited. The second oxide layer 25 may be deposited by Sub Atmospheric Chemical Vapor Deposition Undoped Silicon Glass (USG) or High Density Plasma USG or Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition completely fill the openings 20 to complete the encapsulating structure in one embodiment.

Here, the sheath layer 24 and the protective region 22 isolate the heater layer 23 from the silicon oxide of the first and second oxide layers 19, 25 and prevent oxidation of the heater material.

The structure is then planarized by CMP (Chemical Mechanical Polishing), thus removing all portions of the second oxide layer 25, of the sheath layer 24 and of the heater layer 23 extending outside the openings 20, as shown in FIG. 7. In particular, the remaining portions of the heater layer 23 form a plurality of heater regions 23 (one for each cell of the memory array).

Then, referring to FIG. 8, an OMS/OTS (Ovonic Memory Switch/Ovonic Threshold Switch) stack is deposited. In detail, a first chalcogenic layer 27 (e.g., Ge₂Sb₂Te₅), a first barrier layer 28 (e.g., TiAlN), a second chalcolgenic switch layer 29 (e.g., As₂Se₃) and a second barrier layer 30 (e.g., TiAlN) are deposited. The above materials are only illustrative, and any chalcogenic material or mixture of materials, including multiple layers suitable to store information depending on its physical state (for first chalcogenic layer 27) and to operate as a switch (for second chalcogenic layer 29) may be used. Moreover any barrier layer or mixture of barrier layers suitable to separate and seal chalcogenic materials may be used. The stack of layers 28-30 is then defined (FIG. 9) to form so called “dots” 31, each dot 31 comprising a storage layer 27, a first barrier layer 28, a switching layer 29, and a second barrier layer 30.

The dots 31 extend substantially along a column of the array (see also FIG. 12).

Then a sealing layer 32, e.g., of silicon nitride, and an interlayer dielectric 33 (e.g., of silicon dioxide) are deposited.

Finally, the wafer is subjected to CMP to planarize the structure and column lines and vias are formed, for example, using a standard dual damascene copper process. As shown in FIG. 11, the dielectric 33 and the first dielectric layer 14 (as well as the sealing layer 32 and the bottom of the protective region 22, where present) may be etched in a two-step process to form via openings 35 (extending down to the row lines 13) and trenches 36 a, 36 b extending down to the top of the dots 31. The two etching steps may be carried out in any sequence. Then, a metal material (e.g. Cu) is deposited that fills the vias openings 35 (FIG. 11) and the trenches 36 a, 36 b, forming vias 40, column lines 41 a and row line connections 41 b. Column lines 41 a correspond to the bit lines 5 of FIG. 1. Thus the structure of FIGS. 10-12 is obtained, wherein each dot 31 is formed at the intersection between a row line 13 and a column line 41 a. Obviously, connections to the underlying circuitry may be provided by this metallization level, which is not necessarily the first one.

As visible from FIGS. 10 and 12, in the final structure, each heater region 23 has a substantially box-like shape corresponding to the shape of the respective opening 20 and including a bottom region and a wall region. Specifically, each heater region 23 comprises a rectangular bottom region and four wall elements including a first and a second vertical elongated wall 23 a, 23 b. The first vertical elongated wall 23 a (on the left, in the drawings) extends approximately above the midline of the respective row line 13 and is in electrical contact therewith. The second vertical elongated wall 23 b (on the right) extends on top of the first oxide layer 19. Each first vertical elongated wall 23 a forms a substantially rectangular wall-shaped heater (also called a resistive element, see FIG. 11) that contacts the respective dots 31 along a linear contact area 37 (indicated by a hatching in FIG. 12) and is shared by all the dots 31 aligned on a single row line 13. The electrical connection of all the dots 31 along a same row line 13 through the wall-shaped heater 23 does not impair the operation of the memory device, since the second chalcolgenic material 29 of the dots 31 forms an OTS or selection element allowing accessing only the dot 31 connected to both the row line 13 and the column line 41 a that are addressed.

In the embodiment just described, the top portion of the protective region 22 and of the sheath layer 24, of nitride, form a glue layer for attaching the dots 31 to the underlying layers during definition of the dots 31 themselves.

The contact area 37 (FIG. 12) is rectangular, having a first dimension (in the direction of the column lines 41 a) that is sublithographic and a second dimension (in the direction of the row lines 13) that is equal to the width of the dots 31. Thus, it is possible to obtain both a very reduced cell area (e.g., 4F²-6F², where F is the minimum lithographical dimension available for a given technology, and a reduced contact area 37 (t*F, where t is the thickness of the heater). In fact, the width of the heater 23 is given by the thickness of the heater layer 23 which, with the current deposition techniques, is a sublithographic dimension that is lower than a minimum dimension obtainable through optical UV lithography.

Furthermore, the decoding elements may be accommodated in the substrate below the array, resulting in a considerable saving in the occupied area.

The described structure may be repeated more times on different levels, thus allowing the formation of stacked arrays, with a further reduction in the memory bulk.

FIGS. 13-20 show a different embodiment, using a metallic/semi-metallic/semiconductor glue layer. In these embodiments, parts that are the same as in the embodiment of FIGS. 3-12 have been designated with the same reference numbers, with the following description is focused on the specific features of this embodiment.

FIG. 13 shows a wafer 10 wherein row lines 13 are already formed, insulated by the first dielectric layer 14 and covered by the first nitride layer 18 and the first oxide layer 19. According to this embodiment, a glue layer 50 of metal (e.g., of Ti) is deposited on the first oxide layer 19, and thereafter, openings 20 extending through layers 50, 19, 18 are formed (FIG. 14).

Then, in FIG. 15, a spacer layer, e.g. of silicon nitride, is deposited and etched back to form, together with the first nitride layer 18, the protective region 22. Thereafter, the heater layer 23 (e.g., of TiSiN) is deposited and stabilized, the sheath layer 24 (e.g., of silicon nitride) and a second oxide layer 25 are deposited, thus obtaining the structure of FIG. 15.

Subsequently, as indicated in FIG. 16, the structure is planarized by CMP (Chemical Mechanical Polishing), and an OMS/OTS (Ovonic Memory Switch/Ovonic Threshold Switch) stack is deposited, including first chalcogenic layer 27, first barrier layer 28, second chalcolgenic layer 29 and second barrier layer 30.

Later, the OMS/OTS stack 27-30 is defined (FIG. 17) to form the dots 31. In this case, etching is continued to etch the glue layer 50, thereby leaving only glue portions 50 a under the dots 31. Etching may remove all the glue layer 50 around the dots to avoid metallic residuals that might short the dots. As a consequence, as visible in FIG. 17, on the right of each dot, the upper portions of the layers 19, 22, 23, 24, 25 are etched.

Then, referring to FIGS. 18-20, the sealing layer 32 and the interlayer dielectric 33 are deposited. The wafer 10 is subjected to CMP. The vias 40, column lines 41 a, and the row line connections 41 b are formed.

With the embodiment of FIGS. 13-20, a glue region 50 a of metal is formed under a portion of the dots 31. The glue region 50 a is isolated from the respective heater 23, to reduce or avoid electrical shorting that could prevent the correct operation of the cell. Here, the first vertical wall 23 a is substantially rectangular with at least a protruding portion defining the contact area 37 (FIG. 19).

According to a different embodiment, the second vertical elongated wall 23 b (on the right in the drawings) may be used as a distinct heater element. In this case, as visible from FIGS. 21, 22, the heater layer 23 may be removed from the bottom of the openings 20 and the first and second vertical elongated walls 23 a, 23 b may be electrically disconnected, in order to avoid electrical short between two adjacent row lines. To this end, as visible from the top view of FIG. 22, the vertical end walls of the heater layer 23 (indicated as 23 c) are interrupted, e.g. by means of a specific etching step. As another alternative, the vertical end walls 23 c may be oxidized. The final structure is shown in FIG. 21. Encapsulating the chalcogenic material with carbon may extend cycle life and stabilize operating characteristics of the chalcogenic materials such as Vth, Vhold, Ithreshold, Ileakage.

While the present invention has been described with respect to a limited number of embodiments, those skilled in the art will appreciate numerous modifications and variations therefrom. It is intended that the appended claims cover all such modifications and variations as fall within the true spirit and scope of this present invention. 

1. A method comprising: forming a selection element; and forming a storage region in a stack of layers extending completely in a dielectric region.
 2. A method according to claim 1, further including forming a resistive element in a first opening in an insulating layer, depositing a heater layer covering a bottom and a side wall of said first opening, a portion of said side wall of said heater layer forming said resistive element, filling said opening with insulating material and removing portions of said heater layer and said insulating material protruding from said opening to form a heater region surrounded by an encapsulating structure.
 3. A method according to claim 2, comprising, before depositing a heater layer, forming spacer regions on said side walls of said first opening.
 4. A method according to claim 2, comprising, before filling said opening, depositing a sheath layer on said heater layer.
 5. A method according to claim 2, comprising, before forming said first opening, depositing a glue material layer, and wherein forming said first opening comprises removing selected portions of said glue material layer and removing said glue material layer extending laterally to said stack to form a glue material portion extending only on one side of said heater layer.
 6. A method according to claim 1, further comprising forming a sealing region laterally surrounding said stack.
 7. A method according to claim 1, wherein forming a stack comprises depositing a first layer of a first chalcogenic material, a second layer of a barrier material, a third layer of a second, different chalcogenic material, and a fourth layer of a barrier material.
 8. The method of claim 1, including securing said stack to said heater using a pair of layers sandwiching said heater, said layers protecting said heater from oxidation. 